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Rosicrucian Writings Online

Man's Primitive Instincts

SOME ARE OF LITTLE VALUE AND OTHERSARE IMPORTANT

By The Imperator[H. Spencer Lewis]

[From The Rosicrucian Digest November 1930]

A FEW weeks ago I spent a week-end in Yosemite National Park. I was

accompanied by my wife and my children, and a few other workers of our staff.We purposely planned to go into this beautiful section of God's country and livefor a few days in the closest possible contact with Nature. We wanted to benatural like Nature, itself, and attune ourselves with the most simple things oflife.This wonderful National Park has gone to great extremes to make it possible forpersons to live for a few days or a few weeks in intimate communion withNature, and yet with every facility to meet any emergency. Of course, it alsoaffords accommodations for those who merely want to look upon Nature withoutmaking her acquaintance, and who prefer always to live in the utmost of luxury

and comfort with every modern convenience of hotel life at their disposal. Butwe chose to live for a few days among the great tall redwoods and pines in cooland clean tents, and with our meals served in a huge redwood building. It wasnot the manner in which we slept or ate, however, that brought us in such closecontact with Nature, as it was our manner of thinking and acting during thewaking periods of those days.From the very moment we approached the great canyon in which this marvelouspark of scenic beauty and natural wonders is located, we could not help butattune ourselves with the stupendous forces of Nature, which formed the

canyon, and the sublime powers that manifest themselves in light, color, andliving expressions of Nature's energy.Here, man has never been allowed to destroy any living thing and, therefore, thevery beasts and creatures of the earth wander about without fear and withoutany other consciousness of man's presence except that which is constructiveand joyful. The bears of all sizes and kinds that wander around in the mountainsof other parts of California, and are always fearful and cautious and ready toprotect themselves against man's so-called sporting blood, come down into thiscanyon and cast aside that fear and caution and act with the primitive faith thatno one will do them harm. It is astonishing to see how these huge bears and


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many other animals called wild and dangerous will walk slowly along theroadway or highway while the automobiles pass, and how they will come up toyour car when you stop and wait for you to hand them food, or will pause for youto photograph them, even at such close range as to be in actual contact withyou.Throughout the day, birds of over forty-one species come down into the campsand fly around your shoulders, alighting on your lap or eating out of your hands

with the utmost joy and perfect absence of fear. Many of them answer back toyour whistles and sing songs when you sing to them. At night the trees andgrass are filled with sounds of animals of all kinds and you seem to live in thecenter of a huge orchestra of primitive music. As you look up to the skies to seethe beautiful stars, you feel that they are more brilliant than you have ever seenthem before, and that they are vying with each other to sparkle and attract yourattention. The moon seems to be more brilliant than you have ever seen itbefore, and you feel that its beams of silver light make more attractive pictureson the ground and cast more weird shadows than you have ever seen in yourlife.

Sleeping under such conditions and knowing that you are surrounded by friendlyhumans and friendly animals, and knowing that in the breast of all living things,from the smallest insect to the huge mountain lion standing on the pinnacle ofone of the highest rocks near by and calling to a mate, there beats a heart thatis in sympathy with the peace of the environment and the primitiveconsciousness of love and kindness, is an experience never to be forgotten.Man can easily revert to his primitive instincts, both good and bad, and it is wellfor him to occasionally bring himself in closest contact with the good instinctsthat were the most primitive in his consciousness. Undoubtedly, the mostfundamental instinct of man is a love of Nature. When you show me a man or

woman who has no love for the great trees, the mighty mountains, the roaringoceans, the rushing streams, the green hills, and flowery valleys, I will show youa person whose Soul consciousness is cramped, whose psychic development isnil, whose power to imagine has never been awakened, whose attunement withthe Cosmic is absolutely undeveloped, and whose appreciation of life is anunknown quantity. Those who must always find in the artificial and manufacturedthings of life, in the tinsel and the deceptive, in the temporal and fleeting thingsof the moment, their whole joy and happiness are those who are missing thegreater part of life and are dishonest with themselves, dishonest with nature,and dishonest with life in its entirety.To lie down on the green grass and sleep in close contact with the friendly,magnetic unfoldment of the earth's forces, or to wade in the streams or bathe inthe pools out in the open under the trees, is to bring into one's aura the greatcreative forces of the universe. This is another one of man's most primitivedesires. The greatest habitations in the world have been built close to thewaters of the earth and when man seeks an opportunity for meditation,consolation, and communion, he seeks the wild space of the mountain tops orthe secluded parts of uncivilized valleys.There, in the Yosemite Park, over thirty varieties of roses can be found most of


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the year, and hundreds of specimens of the most beautiful wild flowers. Man'sprimitive consciousness finds companionship amid flowers, for they talk to him,and tell him a story of beauty and grandeur that nothing else can tell. In theevening hours, we listen to the beautiful music rendered by soloists of nationalfame and only in such a place can the human voice do justice to the gift of God,and only in such a place can musical instruments tell of the Soul that resides intheir physical forms. Around the camp fire, again exemplifying man's primitivelove for another element of Nature, all sorrows and trials were forgotten, and all

of the problems of civilization were cast aside while the hundreds assembledthere looked into the burning embers and listened to the soft tones of musicalinstruments and the singing of old songs.It may be true that among the primitive instincts of man is the desire to hunt andkill, and that this instinct rises often in man of today and dominates his actions.But it is also true that in the real primitive man, killing was only in self-protectionor for the purpose of securing food. It centered entirely around the need for self-preservation, which is the most fundamental of all human and animal instincts.But when primitive man or modern man finds himself so located that there is noneed to protect himself against animals, whose sole desire is to be peaceful, and

when he finds himself in possession of sufficient food for his need, the desire tokill does not rise in his consciousness, but remains the most base andunawakened instinct of all. Other instincts of a primitive nature, which are usuallycalled evil, will not rise in man, no matter how primitive he may live or how far hemay return to primitive methods of living if he will surround himself with love andkindness and express this consciousness toward all other living things, for they,in return, will express peace toward him and all will dwell together in harmony.It is only when man gets closest to Nature that he gets closest to God. When theartificialities and self-deception are cast aside and we see Nature and all ofGod's manifestations in their pure, undefiled and unpainted glory, then we are

close to Cosmic attunement and highly receptive to inspirations that will movethe very depths of our being. No one can go and live for a week or a day in thenatural, astounding, magnificent beauty of the Yosemite, amid the redwoodtrees that have stood there as sentinels for thousands of years, aye, even forcenturies, when this Western world was unknown or unsuspected, withoutcoming away filled with a new glory, a new appreciation, and a new love forevery living thing that God has created, and for humanity as the highestrepresentation of God's image.

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